Sing For Me Just This Once
by ThePrimeOne
Summary: Grief has a strong grip on Felix. Or in which Annette takes notice and attempts to comfort him in one of his darkest moments.


Felix huffed in annoyance when the war council had concluded; muttering something to himself as he quickly retreated from the room. Annette frowned realising she'd been unable to stop him, much less catch up to the Kingdom noble who had disappeared around a corner and away to what she assumed was the training grounds.

"Felix…" Annette muttered before letting out a squeak, feeling a hand on her shoulder. Annette turned back and locked eyes with Mercedes.

"I know you feel concerned… but I think we should let him have some space. He may not be showing it, but he's still grieving. Perhaps it's best we get out minds off such things for now; there was much to take in with that war council. Would you help me make some sweets, Annie?" Annette didn't answer her for a few moments before nodding with a forced smile.

Annette followed Mercedes to the dining hall's kitchen, trying her hardest to prevent herself from letting Felix consume her thoughts once again. In spite of this, Felix appeared in the forefront of her mind, ranging from innocent to something much more… dangerous, considering they were in the middle of a war.

Of course, this lead to many accidents occurring within the kitchen. Broken plates, dropped bowls, wrong ingredients in the mix… it was all a disaster. Thankfully, Mercedes picked up that something was wrong by the frequency of the accidents.

After all, they were adults now, not students in their academic days.

"Annie, I can take it from here. I know something's bugging you, so you should take it easy for a little while" Mercedes insisted. Annette opened her mouth to protest, but bit her lip seeing the mess of the kitchen that had been made. Feeling her face flush red in embarrassment, she apologised to Mercedes, promising to make it up to her before turning around and dashing out of the dining hall.

Annette began to wander the monastery's grounds again, the last images of Felix after the last war council still fresh in her mind; his teeth had bit down on his bottom lip to the point of bleeding, his fists balled as he swung the door open before storming down the hallway, guessing that he left for the training grounds.

Annette suddenly snapped out her daze, stopping herself from running into the doors to the training grounds. "Speaking of…" Annette mumbled, pushing the large doors with as much force as she could muster, slipping into the gap created by one of the doors before sliding it shut. Quietly walking to the grounds, Annette stood in a dark corner as she watched Felix practice his techniques as usual, this time on a dummy outfitted with steel armour. Felix swiped and stabbed at various points on the armour, moving around the dummy with a certain grace that only swordsmen of Felix's calibre possess.

At least, that was what Annette wanted to see in her head. What she saw in reality was more akin to a rage filled beast, an ironic turn of events, knowing how Felix felt about the Prince of Faerghus. Felix swung wildly in wide arcs that left himself open and his footwork was akin to an amateur at best; as if in a little over a week he had lost all his years of experience with a sword. Annette had seen it on the battlefield as well, seeing Felix recklessly throw himself into a crowd of enemies in a battle at the Sreng region. Annette knew that if someone like her, one who was hopeless with a sword could identify such problems, then she knew that Felix was suffering more than she could ever realise.

With a loud, grief filled roar, Felix used all his power and sliced the dummy down the middle, the armour falling to the ground with a loud clang. Not bothered enough to clean it up, Felix wiped away the tears threatening to form in his eyes and sheathed his sword, trudging past Annette who seemingly went unnoticed. The young woman held out a hand and tried to call out to him, but she couldn't muster the courage to talk to him.

Watching him stomp off, she decided to follow him instead, watching him make a beeline for the dorms where his room was. Annette sighed, hitting herself mentally for not mustering the courage to even speak a word to him.

"Come on Annette, get yourself together already," Annette chastised herself, walking around back and forth outside the gates of the training grounds before she stopped, an idea forming in her head. She dashed back to the dining hall, sighing in relief when she saw that Mercedes was still there, scanning her eyes over a cookbook at a nearby table. Mercedes looked up in surprise seeing Annette burst through the door.

"Annie? Is there something wrong?"

"Mercie! I need your help, please!" Annette exclaimed before rambling on about a certain dish she wanted to make. Mercedes, being the mother hen that she is, quickly connected the dots in her head.

Though she knew better, once Annette put her mind to something, it was hard to stop her. Agreeing to assist her best friend, Annette and Mercedes began to start cooking, Mercedes finding Annette's sudden motivation and concentration amusing above all else. With the meal in question finally completed, Annette set them out on a tray, Mercedes in tow with utensils.

"Now, you be careful, okay? We don't want this hard work of ours to go to waste now do we?" Mercedes warned Annette, the younger woman nodding, gripping the sides of the tray and lifting it up, keeping it stable with the utmost care; Mercedes' giggle reaching her ears. Annette turned back and raised an eyebrow, whilst Mercedes gave her a reassuring smile. Without another word, Annette walked out of the dining hall, and headed towards the dorms.

Hearing a familiar sigh nearby, Annette's snapped out of her concentrated state, nearly falling on her feet. She looked up to see Felix ahead of her, having just left the bathhouse, judging by the towel that he was using to dry his hair. Walking slowly behind him, Annette struggled to look away from him, her cheeks to the tips of her ears turning pink at the sight of Felix with wet hair.

She found it oddly attractive.

She gasped as the thought crossed her mind. "No. No naughty thoughts, Annette, just pure, innocent thoughts," she mumbled to herself as she reached the staircase to the second floor dorms. Carefully pushing up one step at a time, she soon reached the end of the hallway, staring at the door to Felix's room.

Annette could feel her heartbeat rise with every passing moment.

"Okay Annette, you can do this, just call out to him, give him the food, say your condolences, and then go. Okay, here goes nothing…"

Suddenly, the door flew open, Annette letting out a squeak as Felix stood over her, eyes jumping between the young woman and the food she was holding. Felix raised his eyebrows.

"Is that…?"

"Um… yes. It's some steaks and cake I made. You haven't been around at the dining hall for the past couple of nights so I thought I'd make it and bring it to you. It's better than eating nothing after all, right?"

"I guess so," Felix mumbled, breaking eye contact. Annette could swear Felix was blushing. "I trust the cake isn't a sweet one?"

Annette nodded. "Yep! It's something… different I tried to try. It's a spicy cake. I know you don't like sweets, so I tried to make something I thought you'd like."

"That's good. You can just leave it on my desk," Felix motioned, stepping out of her way. Annette silently nodded and stepped in, placing carefully on the desk. Annette headed silently to the door before stopping herself and steeling her resolve. She turned to face Felix, who was sitting on his bed, deep in thought.

"Um… Felix?"

The Faldarius heir looked up at Annette. "Mm?"

"I… um, I'm sorry about your father. I didn't know him very well, but the few times we talked, he spoke very highly of you."

Felix looked at her, his eyes widening as if he came to a realisation. He clicked his tongue before looking down at the ground. "Whatever. We barely got along anyway. I appreciate the concern, but as I recall, I remember saying I wanted to have some time to myself for a little while."

Annette balled her fists. "Felix, please. Don't do this to yourself. I saw you at the battle at Sreng a few days ago. You were throwing yourself at the enemies and getting too reckless. Mercie told me you almost didn't make it out alive."

Felix didn't answer, trying to tune out her words. Annette decided to be a little bold. "I saw you training earlier. Your strikes are leaving you open, and your footwork was… well, it was horrendous."

Felix's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing at her. He suddenly stood up, shooting a glare her way that made her stumble back towards the wall of his room. Felix pressed an arm against the wall and stood over her.

"What part of wanting to have time to myself do you not get, huh? Let me guess, Dimitri put you up to this, huh?" Felix sneered, Annette turning red by their sudden closeness. "And what would you know about swordsmanship? You're hopeless with a sword!"

Annette straightened her back and glared back at him, not wanting to back down just yet. "And if someone like me can tell that your ability to use a sword has worsened so quickly, then maybe you're the one that doesn't know anything!"

"Then if all you want to do is come and lecture me instead of trying to comfort me, you can just leave!"

"No! I refuse, Felix!"

"Why?!"

"Because I don't want to lose you!"

Felix attempted to verbally retaliate, but couldn't muster up a word in response.

"I- we, have almost lost Dimitri so many times, Felix. The way he carried himself on and off the battlefield, it was like he wasn't a human. Like he was a beast," Annette mumbled. "And seeing you at the battle at Sreng and you training today… it reminded me of him. And the thought of losing you was almost too much to bear," Annette sniffled, feeling overwhelmed.

"It's just, I have so much I want to say. So much I want to do with you," Annette said. "All I want is to sing every song I've ever conjured up in my head to you over and over again. Steak and cakes, bears, swamp beasties, exploding libraries. Every song until my head can't make up any more or until you feel better."

"You're the first person I've felt comfortable singing to. Not even Mercie has heard half the songs you have, and she's my best friend," Annette said. "So if you went and got yourself killed… who's going to be around to hear my songs? Who am I going to sing to?"

Felix let her words settle in, his lips beginning to tremble, itching to say the words he had been subconsciously holding back for so long.

"Felix. I can't say I know what it's like to lose a father; after all, my own father is still alive and well. But regardless of that, I want to comfort you, Felix, I want to so badly," Annette sobbed, looking up at Felix, reaching up with her gloved hands placing them on his red cheeks. "Because it hurts so much when I've been looking at you hold back on your grief like this," Annette cried. "And considering you didn't tell me off when I was at your door, I get the feeling you want me to; but I can't help you if you won't let me in. So please don't hold back your grief, Felix. I'll always be here to sing your grief away, if you'll let me."

Felix's face contorted from one of abject anger to one of intense grief, his eyes stinging as the tears began to flow from his eyes. Without thinking, Felix threw his arms around Annette's waist. Annette jolted in surprise by the sudden act, but quickly melted into his arms, her arms around his neck; softly beginning to sing songs of Steak and cakes, bears, swamp beasties, exploding libraries that only Felix could hear and wiping away his tears from his face.

Soon coming to his senses, he let go of her, much to Annette's disappointment.

Felix gave her a rare smile. "Hey, uh... thanks, Annette. I really needed that." A genuine smile crept across her face, Annette blushing furiously, her hands clasped together. Mustering up the courage at the last second, he spilt the beans.

"I love you, Annette."

Annette almost fainted from the sudden confession. "W-what?! F-Felix, you can't just say things like that!"

"Says the villain whose singing has made me their captive for over five years," Felix shot back with a smirk. "There's a reason my father was insistent on singing his praises about me to you. He must have figured out how I felt about you. Maybe he was trying to push for you to interact with me… in his own ridiculous way," Felix said scrunching his nose. "He also told me something the night before the battle at Gronder," Felix explained, his tone of voice darkening.

"He said to me…"

_'You never know how much time you have left to let those around you know how much you appreciate… or how much you love them. When the opportunities present themselves, don't let them slip by, Felix.'_

"So… I decided to heed his advice for once, and let you know how I felt before our next battle. We never know which one could be our last after- mph!"

Felix recoiled in surprise, feeling Annette's lips connect with his, arms wrapped around his neck, unfortunately breaking off the kiss not a second later.

"I love you too, Felix. And don't worry; we won't ever have a last battle. We'll both make it out alive."

Felix raised an eyebrow. "Though I do appreciate the positive sentiment, since when were you so forward?"

Annette's face burned the colour of her hair, the young woman burying her face in Felix's chest with a muffled groan. Felix snickered; his eyes landing on the food Annette had brought him earlier.

"Hey beautiful, the food you made is getting cold. There's an extra set of utensils here too, so let's eat. Just the two of us."

Annette blinked, before realising what Mercedes had been giggling at earlier. "I'll have to thank her later," she mumbled, humming the tune of the Steak and Cake song.

As strange as the combination was, Annette had to admit: she now just might like spicy foods the way she liked sweets.

"Okay then. Let's eat."

"Hey Annette?" Felix called out to her, his voice laced with a mix of emotions.

"Yes, Felix?"

"Would you… would you sing for me again? Please, Annette?"

Annette pecked Felix on the cheek, responding brightly with:

"Of course I can." 


End file.
